Columns

Home Country: The Fireplace

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Home Country
By SLIM RANDLES

It’s natural to mumble nasty things about the cold weather. We all do it from time to time. But even the cold has its merits.

One big plus is that it makes fireplaces a reasonable addition to our lives. In cold weather, we can build a fire in our home with a clear conscience. This is something that doesn’t translate well to summer heat, but when it’s cold, here comes the fire.

Strange, isn’t it, our love affair with a fireplace? Makes absolutely no sense. Today, we can make houses so impervious to cold that every time we light a candle, the temperature goes up ten degrees. So what Read More

Weekly Fishing Report: Dec. 22, 2025 

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By GEORGE MORSE
Sports and Outdoors

Merry Christmas!

If you are looking for gifts for the anglers in your family, lures make good stocking stuffers. So do jars of Power Bait or salmon eggs. Don’t think you have to spend a lot of money on rods and reels. There are some excellent, moderately-priced equipment that will be perfectly fine for the needs of most anglers. 

Small streams at higher elevations are starting to ice up. The Rio Pueblo, Santa Cruz River and Rio Costilla are already reporting icy conditions that prevent the measurement of streamflow. Lakes are starting to develop thin ice, but it Read More

Fr. Glenn: Enemies Of Peace

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By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Ah, ‘tis Christmas time. This is when so many of us long for a bit of peace in our lives after a long year of work or study, looking to the new year and all the renewed aspirations that it can bring. Remembering the birth of Jesus millennia ago, we remember his appellation in Isaiah as being the “Prince of Peace” … He destined to bring eternal peace to us. But … peace in our day remains elusive—peace among nations, peace in personal relations, and even peace within ourselves. Hmmm … how to address these—at least the latter if we cannot have great influence on the former? For, as mentioned Read More

Myers: Local Connection To Gaza’s Suffering And Pain

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Yousef Aljamal
Writer and human rights worker

By KELLY MYERS
Los Alamos

This past summer, our community’s Free Palestine Summer Series brought diverse speakers to Los Alamos. One of the presenters was Dr. Yousef Aljamal, a writer, human rights worker, and refugee from Gaza, who joined us remotely.

Today, we share an update about our friend, Yousef, not as an expert speaker, but as a heartbroken brother and uncle. On Sept. 27, while living in exile in Turkey, he woke to the news that an Israeli missile had struck his family home in Gaza. The strike killed nine of his immediate family members Read More

McQuiston: How Insurance Companies Actually Determine Auto Rates

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By ALLEN MCQUISTON
Jemez Insurance Agency
Serving Los Alamos Since 1963
Most people assume a car insurance quote is simple: plug in a few details, get a price.
In reality, that number is the result of thousands of data points, probability models, and assumptions layered on top of one another. 
Understanding how quotes are actually produced makes one thing clear: two people with nearly identical cars can receive very different prices—and it has less to do with the car than most people think.
Here’s what’s really happening behind the scenes.
 
1: You’re Placed Into a Risk Pool (Not Priced Individually)
Read More

Dannemann: Lawyer-Legislator Interferes With Health Care Access

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By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again
© 2025 by Merilee Dannemann

Katy Duhigg blew up the interstate compacts discussion. Again.

This was a few weeks ago, and the latest news reports indicate that the discussion is back on track. But one critical question is, who put Duhigg on the committee?

The interstate compacts I’m referring to are related to access to healthcare for New Mexicans. Medical professionals, including physicians, can legally practice their profession only in a state where they are licensed. For a doctor licensed in another state to do anything professional in New Mexico, Read More

Catch Of The Week: Have Yourself A Merry Little Phishmas

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By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

The holidays are supposed to be about twinkling lights, cookies, time with family, and pretending you are not checking work email (the server room is on fire?? It will be ok till next year right?). Unfortunately, cyber criminals do not take time off; the holidays are one of their busiest seasons of the year!

While you are shopping online, traveling, and clicking through “great deals” … scammers are busy trying to slide into your inbox, texts, and DMs like an uninvited guest at a potluck.

Holiday-themed phishing emails, texts Read More

Fuselier: Life, Art, And God

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By ROBERT FUSELIER
Los Alamos 

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? This question can stimulate a lot of discussion for us humans with our dualistic minds. Is the artwork a reflection of reality by the artist, or does the artwork influence the reality of the viewer? I’ll save my answer until later. Until then, I’m going to take my shot at being a film critic.

The latest of the Knives Out Mystery series, Wake Up Dead Man, would likely fit into the category where art imitates life. I guess the life-imitates-art counterpoint is dependent upon how the audience responds. Rather than delving into Read More

National Academies: DOE Should Develop AI-Based Foundation Models Fused With Traditional Computational Methods To Bring Paradigm Shift To Scientific Discovery

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National Academies News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines how the U.S. Department of Energy could use foundation models for scientific research, and finds fusing these models with traditional computational methods could bring a paradigm shift to scientific discovery. The report makes recommendations for how the agency can pursue increased use of such models in research. 

Foundation models are large-scale AI neural networks that are trained on vast amounts of data—often trillions of individual data points—and Read More